Couples get restless in adoption queue

HYDERABAD: The ongoing tussle over the adoption of Baby Haseena between the Subhramanyams and the American woman, Sharon Von Epps, is giving anxious moments to other Indian couples awaiting adoption as their cases have reportedly been put on hold.

Three couples awaiting adoption are now hoping that their cases do not end like the Subramanyams with the women development and child welfare department ‘finding reasons’ not to hand over the children to them.

According to one of the adoptive parents, the director of the department has asked officials to wait until the Haseena case is resolved. This, in spite of their adoption being approved by the department even before the children were shifted from the Tender Loving Care Home (TLCH) to Sishu Vihar on May 29.

The three children, aged between two and three years, are Saranya, Drishya and Christina. One of the couples who had seen the child at TLCH early this year said the department, while shifting the children to the state home, had promised to hand it over to them in a couple of days.

But now the department officials have asked them to wait for three more weeks, they said. The Subramanyams, meanwhile, have decided to file a writ petition in the High Court on Monday with the assistance of the Andhra Pradesh Alliance for Child Rights (APACR). This follows the department’s statement that the couple wanted to adopt her “to settle scores with TLCH.’’

With regard to Sharon Von Epps being allowed to visit the child, Gita Ramaswamy of the APACR said it should not be allowed by the department as there was no written order.

“This is being allowed based on oral communication from the chief minister’s office,” she alleged.